Below is a list of up-to-now identified possible technical solutions for archiving of time-series datasets. Any new proposals or links to subject matter experts are still welcome.
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Currently the NetCDF format has been chosen as the first candidate for the storage of the TIGGE time-series data. The related technical work (choosing the exact file structure; defining meta data; writing the maintenance scripts etc.) is in progress. |
Relational database (e.g. PostgreSQL)
pros:
- flexible
- conditional verification
- SQL queries
- easy to implement
cons:
- possibly very slow and hard to maintain as an estimated annual increases is around 100 TB
- probably a need for a tool preparing some common output data file for users from the database values
ODB
pros:
- full support at ECMWF
- can be stored in ECMWF MARS and use all its capability
- SQL like queries
- compression
cons:
- generally not too known format?
- not too flexible if any re-computations are needed
NetCDF
pros:
- well known format
- compression
cons:
- not ECMWF MARS support
- not too flexible if any re-computations are needed
BUFR
pros:
- fast access
- full support at ECMWF - new API in preparation
- can be stored in ECMWF MARS and use all its capability (?)
- compression
cons:
- special setup probably required if there would be any data policy for external users (one file cannot contain all information)
- not too flexible if any re-computations are needed
Other possibilities
- some sort of GRIB?